While it was the end of a long season for Wales, New Zealand knew how that felt, but the mental side of their game had been fixed up by the Chiefs' loss.

"They'll front up in a big way on Saturday," he said.

Wales would be looking to take the All Blacks on again with ball in hand rather than from set-piece manoeuvres.

"I think they've worked out that to play us they can't just go from penalties to scrum penalties, kick to the corners and go for lineouts. They're going to have to try and play a brand of rugby, which they're actually quite good at playing, in my experience they've got good ball skills, hand-eye co-ordination's good and even on Saturday night when they did do it they looked good.

"So they'll be encouraged by that and will want to come out and have a real crack at us which will be great," he said.

Hansen explained the Julian Savea non-selection by saying the All Blacks were a place where you were 'comfortable being uncomfortable but sometimes it was possible to be comfortable being comfortable'.

In last week's game Waisake Naholo had 17 touches of the ball and Savea had four and it was time to allow him to have a breather. It was almost a case of trying too hard and he needed time to mentally freshen himself.

"He's a class player, we know that, and in the past he probably hasn't worked hard enough but that's not the issue at the moment. The issue is that he's working really, really hard and he's probably trying too hard, to the point where he's over-thinking things and when you over-think things you end up being a robot.

"And that's not what we want, we want an instinctive Jules and when he's like that he hurts people. He'll get another opportunity," he said.

"When playing becomes a burden because you're trying too hard you lose the enjoyment."

Hansen said by having a breather he was sure Savea's response when he returned would be a world-class performance.

He was also disappointed Wales wing George North wouldn't be playing because he had provided a challenge last week and that was the sort of thing the All Blacks needed.

There had been no intention of exposing more new players to the Test environment in the game, he said.

There was a learning process involved in coming from the Super Rugby environment to the All Blacks and that process could interfere with the instinctive side of the game and that was why they didn't want to go through what would have been like another first Test with a whole of new people in the side.

"Rugby is about getting clarity so you can actually come out and have real intensity and physicality and it's an instinctive game, you don't want to have to be thinking about what you're doing," he said.